Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Review: Sekret by Lindsay Smith

I had issues with this book. I wanted to love it, and I tried to love it, but I could not. Will explain why, and I will try not to post any spoilers for the book, since it isn't out until April :) Really wanted to read this book because of the summary; as it reminded me a little bit of the books by Elizabeth Wein.

I don't know how to talk about my feelings for this book, because I don't have much positive to say about it. That makes me sad, but it's the truth. I just did not love this book. I didn't hate it either, but yeah. I did not enjoy it. I wanted to, I really did. It took me three days to read this.

My issue with Sekret was that I didn't manage to enjoy the writing. Which really sucked. Because I need to love the writing if I'm going to have any hope of enjoying the book. But I just couldn't in this one. I wasn't able to stop thinking about the way it was written, and it just wasn't for me. But I do think that others will enjoy it. Just not me and my weird ways of reading a book :) But anyway. I didn't only have troubles with the writing. I also had issues connecting to the book. I didn't feel anything for the characters. I might have felt something for Valentin, but then Yulia sort of ruined it with the way she was thinking. Sigh. I wanted to enjoy all the characters, but I just couldn't. Didn't understand them.

The plot in this book is interesting. Not perfect, as I seemed to be confused most of the time and some things were described too much and others too little. I liked that the book was set in Russia, just a bit upset that almost nothing of Russia was shown. That sucked a bit. I was a bit confused about how old the characters were, since no age were given for any of them, except for Yulia. I think. There are a lot of things about this book I wish were better, but I was happy with it. Kind of. No love, though. Sigh.

I just don't know what to say about this book. I'm not going to discuss the plot, because there is a lot to talk about and I feel it would be spoilery. Though, this book focus on psychic teenagers. We get to read about so many characters, too many names for me to remember. I enjoyed a few of those. Most I found to be annoying and a bit badly written. But anyway. I sort of enjoyed reading about their psychic powers. Though I felt like I didn't get to know nearly enough about any of them, which made me a bit sad.

The book is told from the point of view of Yulia. I wish I could say I liked her, but really, I didn't connect with her so I didn't find her that interesting. I didn't enjoy the time jump in the beginning, because so much about who Yulia became was just skipped ahead. I didn't understand why Sergei was so kind of in love with her from the very beginning. It was annoying, as I didn't like him either :p Sigh. I wish I could have loved them all. I wanted to. But yeah. I just didn't and I'm sad about it, but kind of happy as well.

Then there was Valentin. I felt like we didn't get to know enough about him. There is some romance between him and Yulia, but I felt like it wasn't done well enough. And we didn't get to see much of it. Especially not since Yulia kept second-guessing him all the freaking time. It got very annoying. But anyway. I did enjoy reading about Valentin. He was pretty interesting. But not enough for me to enjoy the book. Anyway. That is mostly all I have to say about this book. Others will probably love it, though :)

I have decided to give Sekret a two star rating. Near the ending I considered a three star, but no. It wasn't that good for me. But even though I didn't enjoy this book most of the time, I'm still glad that I read it. Somewhat. I considered giving up on it a few times, but I was interested in seeing how it ended, and that made me continue. I liked the ending for the most part. The romance part was good. But oh, I am curious about what happens next. There must be a sequel. I would read it, I think :)

I'm very grateful to Macmillan Kids and Ksenia for this gorgeous print ARC copy. <3 Thank you so, so much for the chance to read this book early. I'm sorry I didn't love it, but still glad that I read it :)

8 comments:

  1. I got rejected for this one and it was a bummer cause it sounded so interesting, sad that you couldn't enjoy it, Carina! Great review, though.

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  2. I have the e-arc and now feel the slightest bit afraid to read it. I hope it connects with me a bit better. We shall see. Great review Carina! Thank you for sharing and being honest.

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  3. Oh but it sounds so good! *pouts* I was looking forward to reading this one. It sounds like it suffered from lack of character development all around. That's too bad.

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  4. Sorry that this one wasn't all that you wanted it to be. It sounds interesting, but sometimes books fall short. Glad you are still happy you read it! :)
    ~Jess

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  5. Sorry this didn't work for you, Carina. Hope you enjoy your next read more! :)

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  6. Oh, no! I mostly downloaded this because Elizabeth Wein blurbed it. In my mind, that was recommendation enough. But my enjoyment of any book largely depends on the writing style and now I'm afraid I won't like it either.
    We'll see. Great review!

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  7. I'm not sure this is going to be the book for me. I think I'll skip it for now. Thanks for the honesty.

    Jennifer
    YA Sisterhood

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  8. I just finished an ARC of this one from NetGalley and I actually really loved it! I'm sorry you didn't, though :(
    I really liked the writing and the whole Russian aspect of it, since I learned Russian history in school. I do agree with a few of your points, but I didn't notice them while reading the book. Lovely honest review, Carina!

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